March 13

The show goes on. Teenage sensation Bianca Andreescu just keeps rolling at the BNP Paribas Open – her latest victory coming over 20th seed Garbine Muguruza to reach the semi-finals in her first appearance at Indian Wells.

Enough can’t be said of the 18-year-old’s staggering rise since the turn of the year. The fact victories like this one, a stylish 6-0, 6-1, are becoming the norm highlights just how far she’s come in the last two-and-a-half months alone. And trust us, she’s not done yet.

Muguruza, a two-time Grand Slam champion, might be 40 places above Andreescu in the WTA rankings, but you could be forgiven for thinking it was the other way around as the Canadian dominated the first set. Storming out of the blocks, as has become customary for the Mississauga-native, she broke the Spaniard’s serve three times in a row to claim it 6-0.

The second set started much the same – with Andreescu giving her opponent little hope. Muguruza, who looked dazed by the sheer power of the Canadian, dropped her first service game and Andreescu didn’t look back. When she broke Muguruza again in the sixth game to lead 5-1, it was all but over.

Serving for the match, Andreescu came from behind to win the final game in impressive fashion – her simply sublime match-winning forehand racing past a helpless Muguruza to seal the victory.

Meanwhile, over on Stadium 2, Milos Raonic qualified for the quarter-finals of the men’s singles draw with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Jan-Lennard Struff. A tight first set was decided by an unforced error by the German, who double-faulted on the decisive point in the final game to hand Raonic the advantage.

Riding a wave of momentum, and likely a loss of confidence from Struff, Raonic broke his opponent’s serve at the first time of asking in the second set to take a swift 3-0 lead. From there, the Canadian switched into cruise control, holding his own serve throughout the second set to seal the victory.

Unfortunately, Denis Shapovalov couldn’t make it three Canadian wins in a day as he lost 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3 to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz to exit the tournament.

(Feature photo: Mauricio Paiz)

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